Tell me,thou villain slave,where are my children?DUCHESS.Thou toad,thou toad,where is thy brother Clarence?And little Ned Plantagenet,his son?QUEEN ELIZABETH.Where is the gentle Rivers,Vaughan,Grey?DUCHESS.Where is kind Hastings?KING RICHARD.A flourish,trumpets!Strike alarum,drums!Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women Rail on the Lord's anointed.Strike,I say![Flourish.Alarums]Either be patient and entreat me fair,Or with the clamorous report of war Thus will I drown your exclamations.DUCHESS.Art thou my son?KING RICHARD.Ay,I thank God,my father,and yourself.DUCHESS.Then patiently hear my impatience.KING RICHARD.Madam,I have a touch of your condition That cannot brook the accent of reproof.DUCHESS.O,let me speak!KING RICHARD.Do,then;but I'll not hear.DUCHESS.I will be mild and gentle in my words.KING RICHARD.And brief,good mother;for I am in haste.DUCHESS.Art thou so hasty?I have stay'd for thee,God knows,in torment and in agony.KING RICHARD.And came I not at last to comfort you?DUCHESS.No,by the holy rood,thou know'st it well Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell.A grievous burden was thy birth to me;Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;Thy school-days frightful,desp'rate,wild,and furious;Thy prime of manhood daring,bold,and venturous;Thy age confirm'd,proud,subtle,sly,and bloody,More mild,but yet more harmful-kind in hatred.What comfortable hour canst thou name That ever grac'd me with thy company?
KING RICHARD.Faith,none but Humphrey Hour,that call'd your Grace To breakfast once forth of my company.If I be so disgracious in your eye,Let me march on and not offend you,madam.Strike up the drum.DUCHESS.I prithee hear me speak.KING RICHARD.You speak too bitterly.DUCHESS.Hear me a word;For I shall never speak to thee again.KING RICHARD.So.DUCHESS.Either thou wilt die by God's just ordinance Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror;Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish And never more behold thy face again.Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse,Which in the day of battle tire thee more Than all the complete armour that thou wear'st!My prayers on the adverse party fight;And there the little souls of Edward's children Whisper the spirits of thine enemies And promise them success and victory.Bloody thou art;bloody will be thy end.Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend.Exit QUEEN ELIZABETH.Though far more cause,yet much less spirit to curse Abides in me;I say amen to her.KING RICHARD.Stay,madam,I must talk a word with you.QUEEN ELIZABETH.I have no moe sons of the royal blood For thee to slaughter.For my daughters,Richard,They shall be praying nuns,not weeping queens;And therefore level not to hit their lives.KING RICHARD.You have a daughter call'd Elizabeth.Virtuous and fair,royal and gracious.QUEEN ELIZABETH.
And must she die for this?O,let her live,And I'll corrupt her manners,stain her beauty,Slander myself as false to Edward's bed,Throw over her the veil of infamy;So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter,I will confess she was not Edward's daughter.KING RICHARD.Wrong not her birth;she is a royal Princess.QUEEN ELIZABETH.To save her life I'll say she is not so.KING RICHARD.Her life is safest only in her birth.QUEEN ELIZABETH.And only in that safety died her brothers.KING RICHARD.Lo,at their birth good stars were opposite.QUEEN ELIZABETH.No,to their lives ill friends were contrary.KING RICHARD.All unavoided is the doom of destiny.QUEEN ELIZABETH.True,when avoided grace makes destiny.My babes were destin'd to a fairer death,If grace had bless'd thee with a fairer life.KING RICHARD.You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.QUEEN ELIZABETH.Cousins,indeed;and by their uncle cozen'd Of comfort,kingdom,kindred,freedom,life.
Whose hand soever lanc'd their tender hearts,Thy head,an indirectly,gave direction.No doubt the murd'rous knife was dull and blunt Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart To revel in the entrails of my lambs.But that stiff use of grief makes wild grief tame,My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys Till that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes;And I,in such a desp'rate bay of death,Like a poor bark,of sails and tackling reft,Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.KING RICHARD.Madam,so thrive I in my enterprise And dangerous success of bloody wars,As I intend more good to you and yours Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd!QUEEN ELIZABETH.